I had an interesting poker experience while I was home on vacation. “Home,” where I was reared, is Cape Cod, Massachusetts. I was spending 10 days there, which meant a good 2-week break from playing. I went to the web to see if I had any options nearby.
I knew Foxwoods was in Connecticut, but what I didn’t know until I started my search was that it is just over the Rhode Island border, which meant a leisurely 2 ½ hour ride to go there. I decided to make a day trip on Thursday, Dec. 30.
I arrived about noon. Foxwoods is a good 10-15 minute drive north of I-95 along a very typical, even stereotypical, New England winding 2-lane road, the occasional store, home, or farmhouse passing by, otherwise surrounded by mostly forest. Suddenly it appears over a rise, a glistening thrust of new building surrounded by clear cut.
It must have been a sixth sense: When I entered, even without finding a map of the complex, I headed in the direction of the only poker room. I got there to find at least twice as many tables as my “home’ card room and a computer program managing the board.
I put my name—actually my initials—up for 2-4 limit and prepared to wait. The program showed the next 20 people for any game. I wasn’t showing on the board then and there were five 2-4 limit games going. After waiting awhile, I noticed that the names weren’t being called all that fast, so I explored a bit.
But (much to the dismay of Foxwoods management, I’m sure), I didn’t gamble elsewhere. I was there to play poker. I did buy lunch and was surprised to see the food costing so much, unlike Vegas and Reno where the gambling subsidizes a lot of the food. I guess that’s what you get when you create a “resort destination.”
I wandered back to the poker room and looked for a copy of Card Player to pass the time. I found them still in boxes along one dimly lit wall.
After nearly 3 hours had passed, the brush began calling off large blocks of names in the 2-4 limit game. I guessed that they were pruning the list of names of people who had gone off to gamble and weren’t waiting in person for games. My name finally came up and I sat down after a 3 ½ hour wait, the longest I’ve ever waited for a table. I wa surprised at the long wait during the daytime on a weekday, but being the holidays may have contributed.
I was surprised by two other things as well: the larger rake and the dealer’s competence.
Mind you, this was the first time I’d ever played poker outside my “home” card room. When I began playing there, at the lowest limit available (1-2 limit), there was a time charge. In December, they had changed to a rake, and for the 2-4 limit game I was now playing there, the rake was $2.50 taken at the flop.
At Foxwoods, the rake could go as high as $4, depending on the size of the pot. It made me tighten up my game ever so slightly, wanting to play solid hands to win good pots.
The first dealer up was troubling. He exposed cards more than once, began dealing before betting was completed, and seemed to generally not be paying much attention. That dealer also came back later, making me tune a little closer to exactly what he was doing.
The experience was different too in that they use $2 chips in the 2-4 game, where I had been used to $1 chips.
There was one major league calling station who was also drinking pretty heavily. He saw nearly every flop and most of the time stayed to the river. When he caught the river card to make a hand, several other players would complain about the beats they took. But I knew that in the long run, he could not sustain wins and I planned to play for the long run,
In fact, he wasn’t winning overall. Even when he did win a pot, his stack would quickly shrink and he’d pull out more cash to keep playing. I knew I was occasionally getting some of that money, but I also knew not to target him specifically, to just let the game flow.
And the 5 hours I played were about enough. I won a total of 7 pots, took away a net $73 profit, and kept my resolve to play fairly tightly, to not get sucked in to a gambling syndrome.
A few other notable differences:
The bank is like any other casino game. Every so often, chips are restocked, a chop is made and dropped into the lockbox. When someone wants more chips,, chips are taken from the bank and the money is dropped in the lock box. At my “home” card room, since they instituted the rake, they keep a fixed amount in the dealer bank. When more chips are needed of a particular denomination, they are exchanged for other chips, or for cash from when a player bought chips. The card room dealers count the total when they get pushed.
The casino cards are curved from players bending them to peek. I don’t know how often new decks are brought in, but I don’t see it that bad in the card room. Not even close.